


Scenic World

by wntr_sldr



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-01-29
Updated: 2012-03-20
Packaged: 2017-10-30 06:54:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/328990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wntr_sldr/pseuds/wntr_sldr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a coma, Charles loses his memory and his telepathic power. Erik gets a second chance to make it right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

The beep coming from heart monitor is the only way Erik can know for sure that Charles is alive. It's been like this for two weeks. Erik stays in the hospital all day and night, watching Charles being kept alive by men without any X gene. People who Erik wants to exterminate, for the better of mutant race. Those people are saving Charles' life.

It'd be funny if this was not such a damn tragedy.

It started two weeks ago in Cuba. Erik had deflected the bullets preventing them from hitting him. He didn’t even look where they were going. This wasn’t supposed to hurt anyone - if it was aimed to hurt someone, this would be Moira, not Charles. Never Charles. Ever. 

But a bullet managed to lodge itself in Charles’ head. And Erik's life fell apart.

Every night when Erik finally falls asleep on the couch from exhaustion, he has dreams about that day. He has seen Charles shot so many times, right in front of his eyes. Sometimes Erik allows himself to dream that he had given his helmet to Charles, and that bullet never made its way into his skull. But he always remembered that the reason why Charles got shot was because of that helmet. If Charles died without waking up from his coma, Erik won’t be able to forgive himself.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was edited because my beta-reader is gorgeous and saved my fic.

The doctor had gently explained to Erik that the bullet hadn’t actually penetrated Charles’ brain. By some miracle, not even the doctor can explain how, the bullet had lodged itself in a safe spot, but the impact was enough to lead to a coma. According to the doctor, Charles was very lucky - the bullet almost had caused an artery to rupture, but Erik can’t think of Charles as lucky when he looks to his dead-like body covered in white sheets. Day after day the students come to visit Charles but none of them stays longer than five minutes. Maybe because it’s too painful to see the person who gave them a place to live, a family and a purpose, like that or maybe it’s because no one could handle Erik being there. Alex, Sean and Hank usually come in together and try to ignore Erik’s presence as much as possible but Alex always has reproachful look for Erik before he leaves. Raven is the only one who comes to visit them both.

“You know,” She sits next to him, “he may take years to wake up.”

“Cut it out, Raven.” His eyes are on Charles. “I’m not leaving him again.”

She sighs, “And why on Earth would you think I was suggesting you to leave him? He’s my brother, Erik, I’m sure you remember that. I may have had the intention to leave him before, but that was a whole different matter. I’m not going to leave him like this.” She sounds so offended that Erik apologizes.

“I’m sorry, I just… This… All of this is so stressful.” He reclines on the couch, hiding his face in both hands. “I can’t handle this anymore, Raven. I keep waking up in the middle of night with the sound of that gun echoing in my mind. I see Charles dying every night. And then I open my eyes and…” He looks to Charles. “He’s like that. I just want to see him alive.”  
“I know, Erik. But you’re torturing yourself for no reason. It wasn’t your fault. We all know that. Charles will know too.” 

Erik laughs a little. Everyone thinks it is his fault; Erik himself feels guilty. There’s no point in pretending otherwise. Why would Charles forgive him?

“I’m just trying to help. If you feel like you need to be here, stay with him. Just, please, stop blaming yourself.” Raven kisses his forehead and leaves the room. Erik is a mess right now and only Charles can get him out of this dark place.

When the third week starts, Erik decides to try to do something. Around 11pm, a nurse comes in to check Charles’ vital signs. She won’t returns for another 3 hours. If something goes wrong in the meantime, Erik can call for help, and at this point there’s no sense in checking the patient every hour. Erik is divided between rage because they were already taking Charles as a lost cause and the feeling of relief because that gives him 3 hours to talk to Charles with no risk of being interrupted.

He can't help but feeling like a fool for trying to talk to someone who clearly can’t listen to him. 

“Hi, Charles.” And then he stops. _What am I doing?_ He considers going to lay down on the sofa and waiting to be awaken by his memories. But the next second he finds himself talking. “I hope you can hear me. I miss you so much. Will you come back for me?” He takes Charles’ hand and kiss it softly. “I need you by my side.” 

He watches the heart-monitor but nothing extraordinary happens. He doesn’t even know what he expected to happen but he keeps trying for the next four weeks. Talking to Charles replaces their habit of playing chess. 

“Everyone is living in the Mansion.” He tells to Charles one day while drinking a cup of coffee. “Sean and Janos have daily fights because whenever Sean decides to fly around the house, Janos makes a small tornado to catch him. He gets so angry. I think you’d find it funny.” Erik smiles, thinking of Charles smiling back. He would give so much to hear Charles’ laughter. “I love you.”

That night, for the first time in the last two months, Erik wakes up not because of his nightmares but because of people moving in the room. He can feel panic rising. **Charles**. What happened to him? Before he could ask to someone about what’s going on, he is pushed out of the room. 

“No! Wait. Someone! _Please_.” 

But none of them stop to calm him down. He hears someone counting to 5. Which can’t be good. That can’t be good at all. Is Charles dying? He pushesa nurse out of the way to get space to get back into the room. No one stops him. It’s Charles. His Charles. That bastard is not going to die and leave him. 

But then there is a pair of bright blue eyes looking around confused.

Charles has woken up.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta'd by purple_spock@lj. I just want to say thank you VERY much, Stephanie. Really.

Erik doesn’t know what to do next. He has been kicked out of the room and now he has to wait until someone allows him back in. Waiting is not a habit he’s used to. All that he can do for now is to walk around, hoping for patience that he won’t ever find. Raven, Alex, Hank and Sean are speechless, all of them just staring pointlessly into nowhere. 

Charles is awake but he doesn’t remember much. He barely knew his own name. 

“So… Charles, do you have a family?” The therapist asks in a friendly tone, trying her best to make Charles remember some detail about his life, something that may be useful to unlock his memory. She hasn’t been told that Charles is a mutant. Neither has Charles.

“Hm.” Charles shut his eyes trying to remember anything about parents, a wife, kids, but nothing comes to mind. He opens his eyes again, giving her a guilty look as if it was his fault he was lost. “I’m sorry.” 

“Don’t be, Charles. It’s not your fault at all. But you’ll get your memory back. Eventually,” she smiles and stands up. “You do have a family. A sister. And she’s outside. Shall we call her?”

Charles frowns. He can’t recall that. A sister? Surely he should remember having a family, right? No, he thinks; he is not going to remember anyone. The whole thing too embarrassing and for a moment he considers not allowing anyone to visit him. But the moment only lasts a second and he nods. Raven comes in, smiling a little but she seems so nervous and that makes Charles smile in return as if he could calm her down. And it almost works.

She approaches slowly. “Hi, Charles. Remember me?” She chews her bottom lip nervously. 

Charles tries really hard but he doesn’t have any memory of the girl. “No, I’m sorry. What’s your name?” His tone is soft. He can’t help but feeling sorry for not remembering her.

Raven bites her lip a bit harder as she makes an effort to not cry. She wants to turn into her natural form and ask Charles to reads her mind, hoping that would help somehow. But she’s not sure how the therapist would react to the scene, so she leaves it.

“Raven. Raven Darkholme. I’m not…” She gives the therapist an uncomfortable look. Why is the woman is still here? “Um… not your sister. I mean… we’re not blood relatives but I grew up with you since I was just a little kid and well… you’re my brother. At least that’s what you used to tell me.”

That only makes Charles feels even worse. How can his mind play such a trick game on him?

“You’re my sister then.” He smiles genuinely. “I promise I’ll try my best to be your older brother again if you promise to be very patient with this whole situation,” he reaches her hand and she seems to calm down somewhat. “So would you mind to tell me more about my life?”

The therapist finally leaves them alone and Raven sits on Charles’ bed to tell him everything but then she starts to worry how she should tell someone about mutants. It’s like talking to humans. Charles has no memory about any of it and as far as Raven knows and he could reacts badly, just like anyone else. She has been rejected over and over again, even when she was just a kid, and she can’t handle being rejected by Charles. So she calls Erik for help. But then Sean gets pissed off that Raven is calling Erik, not them, and decides to invade the room, dragging Alex and Hank with him. 

Erik snorts, using his best scaring-children-to-death voice tone, “What are you doing?” Erik blocks the entrance, keeping the door closed behind him. 

“We’re seeing our professor. Do you mind?” 

“Very much.” Erik scowls. “Charles needs to rest and you two,” he points a finger at Sean and Alex, “are goddamn loudly and noisy. Let me take care of Charles.”

“When you say ‘take care’ do you mean putting another bullet in Charles’ head?” Alex and Hank look at Sean surprised, as does Erik. 

“You know what,” Alex takes a step forward, “As much as it hurts me to say it aloud: Sean has a point. We don’t trust you. In fact, I don’t trust Raven either. We don’t know what you are up to. You could easily influence Charles since he’s not himself right now.”

Erik could do that. But he hasn’t thought of that until then, because he couldn’t imagine doing anything like that. He wouldn’t try to manipulate Charles into being on his side. Charles has his own philosophy, his own view of the world and even though he temporarily had amnesia , Erik can’t picture a scenario where Charles change his moral values because of someone’s influence. Charles will remain the same as he’s always been. Charles, the one who made Erik fall in love. Charles who once had loved Erik.

Erik needs desperately to hold on to that thought. Hopefully Charles will recover his memory and remember that Erik had promised countless times that he wouldn’t ever hurt Charles. Maybe that way Erik can get his forgiveness. Honestly, Erik is not hoping this is a kind of second chance, nor does he have hopes for reconciliation, he just wants to be absolved. He needs to know that Charles does not hate him, so he can move on. 

“You shouldn’t talk about things you don’t understand. Suggest again that I'm planning to do something against Charles, I will rip a hole in your chest, and it would not be very good for you to be in public without your panel to control your powers, right?” Erik is about to turn his back on them when Alex and the others pass by him and Alex interrupts.

“I’m not just suggesting, Lehnsherr. I’m being crystal clear when I say that we don’t trust you with Charles. Yes, you stayed here for the last two months, but it was only allowed because Hank asked us to not kick you out. I felt sorry for you.” He brushes past him and enters the room leaving Erik behind. 

Erik is speechless for a moment and thanks to that miracle Alex is alive, otherwise Erik may have killed him right there. Erik pulls himself together and follows the others into the room. As he approaches the bed, he listens to Raven explaining to Charles runs a school and welcomed them with the purpose of teaching them and training them. Charles asks what exactly he was training them for and it’s only then he notices Erik’s presence. Everyone falls into silence. Erik and Charles just stare at each other. Erik’s heartbeat speeds up, he can’t feel Charles in his mind, and he doesn’t know what the other is feeling. Then Charles smiles at him. 

The entire world makes sense again. Erik smiles in return and when he is about to get closer and take Charles into his arms, Charles asks, “And you are…?”

And the entire world falls apart once again. 

“Um. I’m Erik.” His lips refuse to let him smile. His heart aches so painfully.

“Nice to meet you. Are you a teacher in the school? What kind of relationship do we have? I’m sorry I can’t remember,” he does seem truly sorry. “Are we friends?”

Erik laughs, shaking his head. “I’m not a teacher but…” He looks around. Everyone is waiting for his response about their relationship. A single word and Erik can confuse Charles for good. Charles raises his eyebrows anxiously. “But we are friends. Very good friends.” Finally he manages to smile. Charles is amazed that he has so many people who care about him, and even if he can’t recognize them right now, he has a feeling that he’s going to get along with them.

“Raven was telling me about my school. Again, why am I training you?”

Raven was so sure that at least Erik could explain the whole mutant thing to Charles and she finds herself lost when Erik stays quiet. “Uh… well. There’s something we need to tell you,” she looks around looking for some support. Unfortunately though, the needed support comes, it comes through Sean, who may not have been that best option in that situation.

“You’re our tutor. You’re preparing us to… go to college.”

Every single person in the room turns to Sean but only Charles looks like Christmas has come earlier. But before Charles starts to ask them about their thoughts on which degree course they’d chose, a nurse comes in and tell them to let Charles rest. They all – except for Erik – say bye to Charles and Sean is almost kicked out, literally, by Hank and Charles only hears a “What the hell, dude!” before they leave the room.

The nurse gives him some medication, warning about its sedative effect, saying Charles needs to sleep after all the agitation. When his eyes start getting too heavy to be kept open and it’s too comfortable to close them, he sees that Erik is still there.

“Still here?” Charles smiles, closing his eyes. “I recognize you.”

Erik fails to not get his hopes up when Charles says that. “Yes?” 

“I saw you before. I guess. Heard your voice.”

“Charles, I- I’m Erik. We were more than friends, don’t you remember? Charles?” 

But Charles is no longer listening to him. Erik sighs, frustrated. It looks like Erik will have to win Charles all over again.


	4. Chapter 4

Three days later, doctors have no reason to keep Charles in the hospital. As far as they can tell, Charles’ health is absolutely fine. Their only concern is how much Charles will have to adapt when he goes home. 

To be honest after Charles had woken, Erik went back to the Mansion because Raven had insisted that would be much better if she stayed there instead of him. He had agreed. Charles would be more comfortable with his sister helping him than with a stranger claiming to be an old friend. Raven took care of him like she used to do when they were kids. Sometimes Charles had to be taken to the hospital because of headaches extremely painful he got on a daily basis when he was just seven years old. Years later they would find out the reason of those horrible headaches: Charles’ telepathy starting to manifest.

Raven told him a lot of stories about their childhood - always letting Cain and Kurt out of it. If there’s a good side on everything, Raven thinks that good side of Charles’ lost of memory is certainly that he had forgot about Cain and Kurt. 

It’s his first day back home. Charles finds everything a little bit exaggerated. There is a total of ten people living in the mansion, but Charles doesn’t get why they need a mansion in the first place.

“Actually… it’s yours. This house belongs to your family, Charles,” Raven explains to him. 

Charles raises an eyebrow looking around when, from nowhere, he hears a ‘BAMF’ and suddenly there’s a red man standing in front of him. Seeing Raven with Charles, he only manages to say “Oh shit,”

Then Charles starts to panic. “What—oh my—did you just--- where did you come from? I swear I saw you come from nowhere and just—Raven?” Charles looks at her with such desperation in his eyes.

“There’s an explanation. I promise you. I just—ERIK.” She calls when Charles gets the looks of like someone who is thinking about running away. “Let’s talk in the kitchen. You love kitchens. Because it’s where we keep the food.” She continues in a tone like she is talking to a child who doesn’t know how a house works. 

“Raven, my darling, I am sane and I do remember what is a kitchen and yes, I love kitchens, indeed, and yes again, it’s because of the food. What I don’t remember is of people who have power to just appear -- Where is he?” Charles blinks. Azazel is not there anymore. Charles is absolutely sure that man was there a second ago. 

Erik is coming downstairs and his lips curve into a huge smile when his eyes fall on Charles standing in the hallway. “Welcome home, Charles.”

Charles, who at this point is scared for life, turns around to search the source of the voice, like he is expecting someone appearing from nowhere in front of him, but he looks a lot calmer when he sees a real person walking in his direction.

 _You look lovely_. 

“What?” Charles’ eyes get wider, staring at Erik’s. “What did you just say?”

But Erik had not said a single word. Raven and he shared the same fear: Charles recovering his power without truly knowing about it. It’d be a disaster. If Charles loses the control of his power, he could easily to turn everyone’s mind upside down.

“I didn’t say anything.” 

Charles starts to feel very uncomfortable; he just does not want to stay in this place. “I want to go back to the hospital.”

“Charles, calm down. I know you don’t feel safe being here quite yet but it’s your home. You’ll have to adjust to living here, that’s all.” Erik is so close to Charles, the shorter one takes a step away, like his personal space is being a bit invaded. 

“He saw Azazel,” Raven clears up with a sigh and Erik makes a frustrated face.

“Charles, we need to talk. Raven, could you let it be a private conversation?”

Raven doesn’t need to be asked twice. She clearly doesn’t want to be there in the case Charles rejects them all – even if Charles himself _is_ one of them. Erik probably is going to bring up his sister’s mutation and she doesn’t want to have to turn in her true form in front of Charles just to prove Erik’s point. So instead she nods and immediately leaves, not without giving Charles a kiss on the cheek and an encouraging smile. Charles feels a bit strange without Raven but he supposes he will be fine with Erik. Even so, Charles feels lonely when she leaves. 

“Follow me, please.” Erik walks into the library and he can’t say it’s a surprise to see Charles mesmerized when he comes into the big room. Erik can’t help from letting a smile take its place in the corner of his lips. “It’s all yours, actually.”

“Really?” Charles almost forgets about what brings them there.

“Yes. Shall we?” Erik points to a sofa but Charles chooses to sit in an armchair. Erik has to pretend that small act, sitting down in a place where he doesn’t have to share the space with Erik, doesn’t hurt. He gets that Charles isn’t intimate with him – at least he doesn’t remember how much he is – but Erik can’t help but feel a little rejected. “Charles. I really wish I knew how to explain everything to you but I can’t see a way to be simple about it.”

Charles just nods.

“Um,” Erik hadn’t thought about how it was going to go. He can’t start by telling him about a superior race because he’s not sure if he could control himself not to preach using his own view of the world. Alex and Sean would be right in accusing him of trying to manipulate Charles while he’s still fragile. “This is a school, meant to teach mutant youngster how to control their powers. That’s what you planned to do. Alex, Sean and Hank are first of your recruited students. There’s also Angel, whom you haven’t met yet. They are all special. _We are special_ , Charles.”

A few minutes goes by in silence until Charles decides to not believe those words, “Just because I have amnesia it doesn’t mean you can try to make fun of me. I don’t want to talk to you right now, excuse me.”

When Charles stands up Erik does the same and pulls him by the arm, forcing Charles to turn to face him, “I’m not joking. If you remembered me a little, you’d know this. I’m not the type of person who makes jokes.” 

Charles keeps staring at him, a little bit too close to Erik’s body. There goes the personal space again. “You want me to believe that you and these kids are mutants.”

“Yes because that’s the truth and you need to know about it. How do you explain Azazel?” when Charles frowns in confusion, Erik clarifies, “The red man that popped up in front of you.” 

“Oh,” he has to admit it’s a plausible argument as to why there’s a man who can appear and disappear whenever he wants. Charles does remember a lot of information about an x-gene and mutants, even if he doesn’t know where all that information comes from. It feels like a distant memory, maybe from a past life. “It makes sense and I hold nothing against your people but are you sure that _I_ am the headmaster of this school?”

Erik lets Charles’ arm goes and sigh. “It’s not only _my_ people, Charles. It’s ours. You’re a mutant too. You just don’t know how to use it yet. But I’ll teach you how to get it back and to control it,” Charles looks uncertain, “like you taught me.”

“I—Um. I taught you to control yours?” Charles looks vaguely interested now, “What’s your power?”

Erik moves a finger and Charles feels a strong force pushing him into Erik’s presence, their bodies almost bumping into each other. Erik points to Charles’ waist and smiles. “Your belt has metal. I have control over magnetism. Also I can manipulate and project electromagnetic fields.”

Charles noticed that is the first time since they started this conversation that Erik has smiled. He is clearly very proud of himself. 

“Sounds very powerful.” Charles looks him with nothing but admiration.

“You helped me become who I am, Charles. I owe you a huge part of my life. That’s why I’m willing to help you as much as you allow me to.”

Charles blushes just a little but nods. “It seems we were good friends.”

“We were, indeed.” 

But Erik is thinking of other times, when they used to spend most of their days in each other’s company. That day on the beach wasn’t the end of their relationship; they started losing each other when Erik chose to stay by Charles’ side. The end started when it began. It started to end when they first met. They were not meant to be. 

“What is my power?” Charles frowns at the question because it sounds like such an awkward question to be asked aloud.

“You were my only equal, Charles. You’ll be again,” Erik sets Charles free of his magnetic hold and takes a step away, never breaking eye contact, not even for a second, “You’re a telepath. **Very** powerful one.”

Charles blinks. He used to listen to and manipulate people’s mind, is that what Erik just told him? It’s too much information for a day.

“Okay,” he breathes in slowly, “I’ll need to comprehend the whole concept of mutation, I have a vague idea right now, and of telepathy. Would you help me?” Those giant blue eyes are staring at Erik.

“You can count on me, Charles.”

Finally Charles smiles to him. He smiles at the man who is going to help him become his worst enemy.


End file.
